Men's Road Race, 260 kms

Sunday, October 10, 1999

Verona: Corso Porta Nuova,
16 laps/ 260 km

Report:

An Oscar Winning Move From Oscar

By Tim Maloney, cyclingnews.com correspondent

Oscar Freire Gomez, a unknown 23 year-old Spanish pro took the surprise
win in the Elite Men's World Road Championships in Verona, Italy - the
final World Championships of the 20th Century. As the afternoon shadows
of a beautiful fall afternoon bathed Corso del Porta Nuova, Freire jumped
from the back of a group of 9 riders at just the right moment with 500
meters to go and took the rainbow jersey, the first Spanish pro road champion
since Abraham Olano won in 1995. "The other guys really weren't watching
me and I just saw the right moment to go", said Freire. And go he did,
surprising the other 8 in the race winning break for the biggest win of
his short career.

The day dawned crisp and clear as a huge field of over 170 riders took
the start at 10am for 16 laps of the Torricelle circuit. Nothing much
happened in the first few laps of the race, with the riders preferring
to warm up on the cool morning. The first six laps were covered at 38.3
km/hr and were enlivened with an uneventful crash of favorite Frank Vandenbroucke.
The Belgian quickly returned to the peloton and it wasn't until the 7th
lap that the first break got away in Verona. 6 riders, including Velo
(Italy), Knaven (Netherlands), Schweda (Germany), Tessier (France), Sivakov
(Russia) and Hoj (Denmark) got a lead of 30", and maintained it until
B.Zberg (Switzerland), Klöden (Germany) and Laiseka (Spain) bridged up.
This doomed the front group, who were caught at the 120km mark.

At the halfway point of the race after 8 laps, it was gruppo compatto
and despite a few attacks, the rapidly diminishing peloton stayed together
with gli azzurri of Italy riding a hard tempo. Italian co-team leader
Davide Rebellin, the hometown favorite, crashed hard on his left side
and retired, and after 162km of racing the tempo became red-hot. Laps
10, 11 & 12 were ridden at a blistering average lap speed of 44.4 km/hr!
Defending champion Oscar Camenzind (Switzerland) showed himself on the
climb on lap 12, and was quickly joined by race favorite Casagrande (Italy)
and Paris-Tours winner Marc Wauters (Netherlands), but a major effort
by Vandenbroucke pulled them back. On the descent, Andrea Tafi began a
series of huge attacks on the descent, finally getting away as lap 13
began. Tafi began the Torricelle with a 45 second lead, but with Belgians,
Swiss and Germans all chasing hard, he was caught after 9km of freedom.

With 65 riders left in the race, the average speed was 40.8 km / hr
and Italians Zanetti and Velo led a long Indian file of riders through
the finish with three laps to go. At the foot of the Torricelle, after
yet another Tafi attack was absorbed, Alex Zülle (Switzerland) made a
strong attack and was joined by Jean-Cyril Robin (France). This dynamic
duo quickly gained time on the climb and over the top, they had 15" lead.
Behind, Camenzind, Celestino (Italy), Martin (Spain) and Den Bakker (Netherlands)
bridged to form a group of 6 away with two laps to go.

28 riders were chasing the sextet and on the penultimate ride up the
Torricelle, 7 riders bridged up to the front group; Jan Ullrich (Germany),
Francesco Casagrande (Italy), Oscar Freire Gomez (Spain), Marcus Zberg
(Switzerland), Dimitri Konyshev (Russia), Chann McRae (USA), Michael Boogerd
(Netherlands) and Frank Vandenbroucke (Belgium). On the final phases of
the penultimate lap, Zulle, Martin, and Den Bakker dropped back, so a
group of 11 had 33 seconds lead on the chasers starting the final lap.
On the final ride up the Torricelle, Camenzind, Ullrich and finally Vandenbroucke
attacked, but only succeeded in dumping Celestino and Boogerd from the
front group.

At the bottom of the descent with 3.5km to race, Vandenbroucke attacked
again but was pulled back by Zberg. Vandenbroucke went again, but was
pulled back by Camenzind in the team pits with 1.5km to race. Under the
1km to go arch, American Chann McRae, who was having a fantastic ride,
made an attack. He got a small gap, but with 600 meters to go, the remaining
9 riders took the final right turn onto Corso del Porta Nuova.

Who was the fastest left? Certainly Konyshev was known for his rapid
finish and had won some races recently. Vandenbroucke was usually very
fast and Swiss Marcus Zberg looked great and also had a solid sprint but
after 259.5km of fast, hard racing, it really came down to who had the
best legs. As McRae slowed at the front of the group on the left side
of the road, the riders looked at each other...all but Freire. As the
other 8 bunched up on the left, the Spaniard saw the right side of the
road open up all the way to the finish line. Freire didn't hesitate -
he jumped hard down the right side with 500 meters to go and opened up
a huge gap. The quick Spaniard a great jump and kept his 50 meter margin
all the way to the finish line for the completely unexpected outsider
victory.

Freire Gomez is a 23 year old from northeastern region of Spain. He's
a virtually unknown pro with a fast finish who can also climb. His best
previous result was silver medalist in the '97 U23 Worlds in San Sebastian,
Spain.

He turned pro for Vitalicio Seguros in '98 and was 17th in the '98 Pro
Worlds In Maastricht. Freire Gomez was injured most of '99 with a tendon
injury to his right knee and has only raced 11 times this year. He didn't
race the Vuelta, but did a lot of training to get back to top level.

Spanish get serious

The last race of the last World Road Championships of the millennium
saw a bold move by comparatively unknown Spanish rider, Oscar freire Gomez
take out the race in front of several more highly fancied candidates.

Although most of the favourites made the cut on the final few laps, with
the exception of local Davide Rebellin, who abandoned from injury, there
was still a big enough group coming into the finish to make it possible
for an opportunist to sneak off for the win.

In this case it was freire Gomez, who rides for Vitalicio Seguros, who
jumped the final group containing: Jan Ullrich (Ger), Frank Vandenbroucke
(Bel), Francesco Casagrande (Ita), Dimitri Konyshev (Rus), Oscar Camenzind
and Marcus Zberg (Swi), Jean-Cyril Robin (Fra) and William Chann McRae
(USA) with less than a kilometer to go. The others looked around and that
was the end of the race. Italian based rider, Dimitri Konyshev didn't
even sprint after he saw Gomez had gone and finished last of the group
of 9.

Swiss Marcus Zberg easily won the sprint for the silver medal ahead of
France's Robin. Italian favourite Casagrande was in fourth, edging out
Chann McRae (USA) who had a great ride on the day. Defending champion
Oscar Camenzind (Swi) also rode well to finish in the group along with
hot favourites VDB and Ullrich.

Although the first few laps were predictably slow, things really started
to get going on the 6th lap or so. There were a few bad crashes - Rebellin
went down in one and had to pull out; VDB, Tafi and Camenzind also crashed
with Morten Sonne (Den) but the first 3 were able to regain the peloton.
Tafi seemed to be used as a sacrifice for Casagrande, as he attacked time
and time again to keep the pace high. Laps 10 -12 are extremely fast because
of this (more than 44 km/h).

The final four laps saw a lot of attacking, with the Belgians and Germans
seemingly missing the moves and having to chase. The Swiss and Italian
teams were always amongst the moves, with Zulle, Camenzind, Celestino
and Robin (Fra) being very aggressive. However, it came down to a selection
of 17 on the last lap, which turned into 9 the final time up the Toricelle.
Dutch favourite Michael Boogerd missed this group, but all the remaining
favourites were there.

Vandenbroucke tried an attack over the top, but was brought back on the
descent and it came down to the 9 playing cat and mouse in the closing
kilometers. None of the favourites were prepared to let the others go,
so the Spanish rider Oscar Freire Gomez took his chance, and it paid off
with a gold medal - yet another solo win as we have seen in all the road
races, although this one was in different style.

It was an interesting end to an exciting world championships, and the
Spanish team pulled off a major coup by upstaging the Germans, Italians,
Swiss, and Belgians, all of whom had very strong teams.

Previews:

By Tim Maloney, cyclingnews.com correspondent

It should be a long, hard day in the saddle for whoever wins the Elite
Men's World Championship Road Race. With the 3.5km Torricelle climb to
be scaled 16 times, that comes to 56 km of "up", not to mention the fast
descent and urban portion of the circuit that requires constant accelerations.
So only the strong and fit need apply for the Rainbow Jersey and Gold
medal on October 10th.

The man most likely to apply for the job is generally considered to
be Frank Vandenbrouke of Belgium. Certainly, his great riding with two
stage wins in the recent Tour of Spain shows that he is on top form. But
after the upset of his drug scandal in May and the fractional nature of
the Belgian team, VdB could be frozen out at the key moment he needs support
to win his first World Championship. Musseuw and his Mapei men will not
ride for ex-teammate VdB, while Tchmil had only his Lotto teammates to
count on in Verona.

Gli Azzuri of Team Italia traditionally ride well in the World Championships,
and the 14 man squad will be focused to bring home yet another World title.
Francesco Casagrande and local boy Davide Rebellin seem like the Italians
most likely to succeed, but if Andrea Tafi has a good day, he could be
a force to be reckoned with. And up and coming Daniele Nardello, winner
of the tough Paris-Bourges over Andre Tchmil might be a dark horse winner
for the Italians. But no matter what, Gli Azzuri will give their all trying
to bring the final World Cycing Champioships of the millenium to Italia.

Newly crowned World TT Champion and 1999 Tour of Spain winner Jan Ullrich
of Germany and his young team could emerge to rival the Italians. It will
be interesting to see how the newly revitalized Ullrich does in the championships.

In contrast to Belgium, The Netherlands is 100% focused on supporting
a decidedly in-form Michael Boogerd, who recently won back-to-back races
in Italy while preparing for the Worlds. Most of the Orange Crush are
his Rabobank teammates and the circuit suits Boogerd's all-round characteristics.
Last years champ Oscar Camenzind will wear Dossard #1 but he is not considered
to be in top form and may not play a role. France will be led by '97 World
Champ Laurent Brochard, but with World #1 Laurent Jalabert at home recovering
from a Tour Of Spain crash, France will probably play an outsider role
in this years championship.

Other dark horse contenders are Dimitri Konyshev of Russia, Romans Vainsteins
of Latvia, Rolf Sorensen of Denmark and Max Sciandri of Great Britain.
With Lance Armstrong at home awaiting the birth of his first child, the
USA contingent will be led by Chann McRae, who recently finished a respectable
20th in the Tour Of Spain. Australia has 7 riders on the Worlds Team,
with young talent Brad McGee, and experienced Scott Sunderland with the
best chances to show well.

And no matter who wins the final World Pro Cycling Championships of
the 20th Century, the tough Torricelle circuit promises an exciting and
dramatic day of racing.

All the way with VDB

By Jeff Jones

The final event of this year's World Road Championships in Italy is of
course the big one - the Elite men's road race. 16 times up the punishing
Toricelle climb will definitely yield the strongest rider, and it will
be a fantastic battle.

So far, we have seen the large bunches reduced to tatters in the first
few laps, and this race will be no different. The nature of the course
makes it hard for any organised chasing to occur, thus we have seen some
very aggressive racing so far.

The favourites - well, all eyes will be on the white-haired wonder from
Ploogsteert, Belgium - Frank Vandenbroucke, who is on the comeback after
having a bit of a hole knocked in his season. Can the boy pull it off
with the rest of the field watching his every move? I think he can, and
he has a very strong Belgian team who will happily take their chances
should he be unable to escape. Tchmil, Museeuw and Van Petegem can all
ride.

Then there are the Italians, headed by Davide Rebellin and Francesco
Casegrande, both of whom will be very suited to this course. The Italians
will of course be fired up on their home territory, having already won
2 gold medals so far, and would love to top off their championships with
this one. They too, have a formidable squad and should be able to match
the Belgians.

The German team, though maybe not quite as strong as the above two contains
a certain Ullrich, J. who is certainly as strong as Vandenbroucke, and
showed his class in the TT by winning it. Similarly, the Dutch will be
working for Boogerd, although they will be one short - Erik Dekker is
out for hematocrit reasons. Boogerd has shown he is in excellent form
in the last couple of weeks and should be a strong medal chance.

Of course, we can not rule out the other in-form rider, and Italian resident
- Dmitri Konyshev. Again, this type of course will suit his style and
he may be able to escape the more fancied riders.

All in all, it should be a great race and hopefully all the favourites
will stay on their bikes for a great battle in the closing laps. Stay
tuned for our live updates!

Tensions high

Tim Maloney reports that before the start, everyone is very nervous in
the starting box. Davide Rebellin got a huge cheer, being a local boy,
but an even bigger one was reserved for Andrea Tafi, who looks pretty
focussed and is maybe set for a big one today.

Danish TV commentator, Bjarne Riis is picking Max Sciandri to win it
- again an outside chance, but who knows how things will work out.

VDB is confident, according to an insider at the Belgian team dinner
last night. VDB: "You can be sure I'm going to win tomorrow"

Although the Dutch team has been shattered by the removal of Dekker,
they will still be riding for Boogerd, as per team manager Gerie Knetemann's
instructions. Maarten Den Bakker and Leon Van Bon, both Rabobank, are
free to take care of their own interests should the chance occur. TVM's
Servais Knaven, who has had a somewhat tense relation with Boogerd with
opinions from both parties being excanged in the media. But now they are
the best of friends.